Fast Forward
by Sivol
Summary: Catapulted into another time, Harry and Snape must learn to work together if they ever hope to regain any sense of normalcy. Things have changed though, and they're much worse than either of them could have ever imagined. It will take Snape's leadership skills and Harry's determined nature, alongside both of their strengths to get Hogwarts back from the grave.
1. Chapter 1

**_Warnings:_ **Slash - HP/SS; Time Travel; AU from book 7

**_Author's Note:_ **I don't know if I will finish the story but god I hope so this is coming out pretty darn good for what I usually write if I do say so myself.

**Chapter 1**

Harry couldn't understand what he was doing wrong. For the last four years he'd been chasing after that blasted potions professor, Severus Snape. It had all started in 7th year when Snape had a near death experience at the shrieking shack. He'd been bitten by Nagini, however he was no fool. He was a potions _master _after all, and knew that whenever he had to work around that wretched snake that he would need to carry an antidote for her poison with him, just in case. The only problem was that he couldn't reach it in his pockets once he'd been bitten.

When Harry had arrived, Snape had a choice to make. Give the boy his memories and finally die in peace, no longer having to worry about this world and its inhabitants, perhaps to be reunited with his lost love beyond the veil, or tell the boy where the antidote was hidden and have him pour it into the wound. In another universe, perhaps he would have just let himself die, but the split second decision that he made saved his life.

"_The antidote… left side, 3__rd__ pocket… inside the robe." He tried when Harry came to his side. As the boy rushed to find the vial, Snape laid his head back on the wall. "Your pity… is welcomed…" He said through a cringe._

_Harry frowned at that statement. "My pity has never been given to you, Professor." He stated, finally finding the vial. He followed gestured instruction on what to do with it. "You've had my hatred, you've had my fear, and as of late you've had my respect, but I have never for one second pitied you."_

_Snape scoffed which turned into a cough and he turned his head away from Harry. "You can't… honestly say you don't pity… an old man on his death bed… whilst you heal him."_

"_No, I don't." Harry stated adamantly. "I am worried about you though, so shut up and let me do this."_

That was the moment that Harry had seen into his mind. He'd been practicing legilimency for the last 2 years before then, alongside occlumency. He'd done a quick raid of Snape's mind when he initially saw him through the window, however with Snape's primary focus being on staying alive and the hole in his neck, Harry somehow managed to get through and view the very memories that Snape was considering giving to Harry should he have chosen to die.

Harry had no pity for the man, but he did have a strange sense of loyalty that developed. Alongside this loyalty came an urge to get closer to the man, which had sparked his apprenticeship within the Ministry of Magic where he became an intern, learned how the aurors operated, and subsequently applied for the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

This was his first before-term meeting after he'd been accepted to the position by one Minerva McGonagall. For the last 4 years he'd been preparing, studying, working as an intern, and assuring his position within the school's staff, all so he could sit down and talk with the man about what he'd seen in his mind. Yes, he could have tried to schedule an appointment; however he knew that unless he refused to relent on a near constant basis that Snape would refuse to part with the information he so sought.

As Harry was preparing himself for a long stay at Hogwarts, he could have never foreseen what was happening in the castle around him. The castle was a sentient being, one that had been so since the founders had first instilled the wards. All of the magic that had been poured into its walls, its grounds, it all came together in the heart of the castle; the Great Hall. Over the years the castle's sentience had grown exponentially, and it began to form a telepathic bond with the headmasters. It would soak in all of the knowledge of the headmasters in exchange for alerting them of who did what where and how all over its grounds. With each passing headmaster it learned a little more and a little more, until it came into contact with one Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore had been the one headmaster with a secret that the castle had never heard before; the one with a power so rare and so unique. The man had learned quite by accident one day that if one were to place a magical object around the neck of a phoenix as said phoenix fell into ashes and was reborn from them, that the phoenix would absorb the magic in the object. He'd only done this twice, once by accident with a universal language translator that allowed the phoenix to understand everything being said around it, and once on purpose with a time turner that allowed the phoenix to traverse through time, with or without a tag-along.

Upon learning this, the castle sought to invade the mind of its first non-headmaster and non-human target; Fawkes. The castle waited, however, until Dumbledore was no longer around as it did not know what this telepathic link would do to an animal, so once the old man died and once Minerva had settled in as the headmistress, the castle went to work. It learned the secrets of time travel and picked up quite a few languages it didn't already know, but it left the bird a shell of what it once was, unknowing and simply a phoenix.

The castle then lay in wait, searching for the perfect target with which to experiment on. With anything, sentience carried the burden of curiosity. It waited until it had two witches or wizards who were powerful and smart enough to handle such a journey. When Harry Potter started working at Hogwarts, the castle knew it had its people; one a stoic man who could keep calm in the face of anything, and the other a young dreamer who had a magical power greater than any headmaster the castle had ever worked with.

Upon the evening of their before-term meeting where they would receive notice of who was and wasn't on the staff that year, Snape and Potter had a chance meeting and the castle used it. They'd just barely crossed paths on the Grand Staircase when the castle used the magical core that it had built up over the years, grabbed on to the two men's cores via a spell learned some 2 centuries ago, and hurdled them through time with the knowledge it had gained from the phoenix.

Snape and Potter were sent falling from one staircase that had been there a moment ago, to the stairs below it. They landed, Snape on his back and Potter on his front on the cold, dark steps below them. Harry groaned and moved his hand, gripping a moss covered stone. Snape coughed, nearly feeling as though he were going to cough up a lung, as his own hands gripped roots and vines below him. They both stopped and took in their surroundings.

The walls were holey; no light was coming from anywhere that they could see except from the outside where the sun was shining. The castle was quieter than either of them had ever experienced and as their eyes adjusted to the dimness, they could see the empty portraits hanging on the walls. Most were gone, lost somewhere throughout time. The few that remained had no prime subjects, and most of those were ripped, slashed, or faded. The windows were built up with grime so much so that the light couldn't even be seen through them. Below them the stairs creaked as though they were trying to move, but they simply couldn't thanks to the many roots that gripped them tight and had grown through the walls.

Harry scrambled to his feet and stumbled over to Snape, offering a hand to help him up. "At last, you are finally here!" A voice called. It sounded like a mix of both a male and a female voice.

"Show yourself!" Snape roared, standing to his feet with his wand drawn, his attention not focused on the gash on his arm.

"I am all around you, Professor Snape." The voice called eerily. Even the sound of nature had stopped around them. "I am Hogwarts. I have waited for so long. I did not know when I had sent you, it's been so long." The castle said, eager to have them there. "Many questions are going through your mind right now, but I do not have long. I will not be able to sustain my core much longer. Through the years I have soaked up the magic performed in this school, and through the years the magic has worked to give me a great power, however that magic has drained. I am on my last leg of life. The school has been abandoned for a century now, though I haven't seen the two of you in at least 3 centuries. Please… I need… you… to…" The voice stopped.

Harry and Snape looked wildly around. Were they to believe this voice? Why had it stopped? What did it want them to do? As the sounds of birds, insects, and wildlife out in the forest started to return, the two felt a sinking sensation. They had been thrown 300 plus years into the future. How different would the world be? Everyone they had ever known was dead. What would the Minister of Magic be like? Most importantly, where were children going to learn about magic if not Hogwarts?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Snape lowered his wand and closed his eyes for a moment. He was seeking any magical cores around him, something that he'd been trained to do by Dumbledore himself. He only felt his own and Harry's for a few moments, but he did ultimately feel a third core near them, one down the stairs and off somewhere. His eyes flew open and he started to move when he realized that he already was being moved. "Put me down this instant!" The man demanded indignantly.

Harry had him levitated and was carrying him towards what looked like the direction the infirmary was in. "You've a gash in your arm, professor. Whatever it is can wait." Harry stated as he ducked from a tree branch shooting straight through the wall.

"I am perfectly capable of walking, you imbecile. My arm was wounded, not my legs! Now put me down or I will hex the ever living daylights out of you." The man threatened. "And stop calling me professor, I haven't been your professor in 4 years and it certainly doesn't appear that either of us will be teaching any time soon."

"Will you come willingly to the infirmary with me to see if there's anything left that can help you?" Harry asked, looking back towards the man as though he were trying to talk sense into a pet.

Severus growled at the boy. How dare he, how DARE he treat him as though he weren't perfectly capable of helping himself. "Potter, the only healing potions that would have lasted over a century without expiring would be ones that Hogwarts couldn't get their hands on. If you want to help, then clear the way so that I may get to my potions laboratory and set up there whilst you go and pick some plants for me in the forest."

"Ohhh no, that is not happening, Sir." Harry stated with absolute refusal. "We are not splitting up. Merlin, you're half muggle, have you never seen a horror film? You split up and bad things happen. Stay together and things will actually get solved."

"This isn't a horror film you- look… fine, we shall split up for a short while just to prove that nothing will happen, and then you'll go gather the ingredients I need for a potion for this." Snape offered.

"And if something does happen, what then?" Harry asked, crossing his arms and glaring to the man.

"Then we… stay together." Severus had a bad feeling about this. He should have just kept his mouth shut; he just knew that something would happen to make the blasted brat have to follow him around like a mother hen.

The two split up shortly, Harry going to the kitchens to see if any food was salvageable while Severus sought out the source of the third, faint magical core. The older man was surprised when all signs pointed to the Great Hall. Harry found something in the kitchens that surprised him. There was a single house elf, sleeping on the table. He walked over to it and shook the elf's shoulder, rousing her from her slumber.

The elf awoke with a start and quickly moved to defend itself. It looked at Harry, unknowing of who this young man was, and unsure what he wanted. "Castle be mine, not for you! Go, go away, shoo!" She demanded, picking up the scattered dishes around her and throwing them at the intruder.

Harry barely managed to duck the first, and he cringed as it shattered against the wall behind him. Soon his wand was out and he was levitating the dishes himself. He floated them down to a safe place on the counter as he warily watched the house elf who was staring at him. "What was that for? I'm only here trying to help!" He snapped.

The elf skittered back from him, her eyes raking over his body. She swallowed thickly. This was no normal witch or wizard. She moved down and hopped off of the table, going up to the young man. "Why is you clothes so good?"

Harry frowned, looking down to his robes. "Uhm, they're not… they're just simple black robes for teaching, nothing fancy." He replied, glancing back to the elf that was running circles around him.

"Yes! They is clean, they is whole. Why? How? Witches and wizards be poor, they be homeless and slummy. Why you get rich?" The elf demanded.

Harry stepped back a bit. "Witches and- wait what? I'm not rich, I only have about 500 galleons in my vault and-"

The elf waved her hand with a scoff. "Galleons be useless, have been for over 100 years." She muttered, making her way back to the top of the table. She climbed in a chair and nearly knocked it over jumping from it to the flat surface. "Humans find better metal, worth more. Gold fell with the goblins."

"Wait, the goblins, they fell? What do you mean?" Harry asked his heart racing and his mind reeling with the information and speculation.

"Goblins went extinct! Goblins, giants, centaurs, dragons, they all extinct. Merpeople, they still live though. Ruthless, vengeful, bitey!" She made a biting motion with her mouth then flopped down on the table. "You are stupid wizard?"

Harry huffed. "I most certainly am not stupid! I have you know I graduated in the top 20 of my class, I know every spell and potion that Hogwarts had to offer and then some thanks to Hermione's cramming sessions with restricted books, and on top of that I served as an auror and I worked with some people who taught me spells and potions that most who attended Hogwarts could have never expected to exist."

The elf eyed the young man as though he were crazy when an equally irrational notion swept over her. "And you… you be so smart, why you not help wizards and witches? Why you here instead of Diagon Alley?"

Harry frowned, confusion settling in. "What's happened at Diagon Alley? Why do they need help?"

The elf waved her hand again. "You is stupid wizard, stupid, stupid. How not know what been happening for last century? Have no memory?"

"Er, you could say that…" Harry tried, attempting a different route. "I've no idea what's happened since… since er, about 300 years ago, maybe more." He said, hoping to get some information from the elderly elf.

The elf only shook her head. "You go to big office in the tower. You find stuff there. History. Learn it, stupid wizard." She muttered before lying back down and promptly trying to drift off to sleep.

Harry huffed in irritation and decided to make his way back to Snape. He used a simple point-me spell and went along the direction he was being pulled. The elf had barely saw him do this and decided to follow behind him. She didn't know any witch or wizard alive who could control their magic like that, just doing a spell at the drop of a hat. Things like that were only talked about in their lore, the tales of the olden days when people would come here to learn. Maybe this man was the man who- no… No, he couldn't be. It was a legend, it wasn't real. She still followed behind him, just in case.

When Harry finally did reach Severus, he nearly got blindsided by a charm that was headed straight for him. The spell missed him and hit the wall, the air around them becoming thick for a moment before the smells of mold and decay seemed to filter out of the area where Harry was standing. "Mundissaere!" Snape shouted, pointing the same spell towards another area of the Great Hall.

Harry watched him clear the air for a few moments before his attention was drawn to something in the middle of the room. Tree roots had grown in through the walls and they seemed to meet together in the center of the room, the ruined tables serving only as things to grow around and crush with the roots' weight. Where they met a large mound stood, and that was the area that Snape was standing. "What are you doing this for?" Harry called, looking back up to Snape.

"Isn't it obvious? Mundissaere! I'm killing two birds with one stone, Potter. Mundissaere! The magical core's signature came from this room. If it truly was Hogwarts speaking to us, then any kind of magic should help to restore the core. Mundissaere! It also makes it easier for us to breathe if we're going to set up a base of operations here." He glanced back to Harry. "You could help you know. It's a flick and a swirl, watch and learn. Mundissaere!"

Harry took note and watched the man, unaware that they were both being watched by the lone house elf. As she observed the two working she came to the only conclusion that she possibly could. These were the two from the legend. She had to tell her Master.

* * *

_**Etymology of the Non-Canon Spells used in this chapter:**_

_Mundissaere_ – comes from the Latin, 'aere mundissimo' meaning, 'pure air'. This charm purifies the air within a room. The rate of how pure the air will become is in direct relation to the amount of space within a room. The smaller the room is, the more influential the charm will be. It has no effect in rooms larger than 30x30 feet. This spell is not taught at Hogwarts, but was one of the spells crafted for use by the witches and wizards who dared to go on expeditions through the ruins of old in 1952.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The elf ran as fast as her little legs could carry her. She made her way through passageways that had been long forgotten, crawled through spaces that not even the smaller of 1st years could have ever made it through, and made her way from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade; searching for the woman she called Master. She checked her Master's usual hangouts; however she found nary a trace of her anywhere. She climbed into the floo at the abandoned Hog's Head Inn, one of the only 3 floos in Wizarding Europe that even worked anymore, the other two being at Diagon Alley, and one in France. She toppled out of the floo in Diagon Alley and went to search there.

Her Master wasn't in the old stick store, and quite frankly she didn't know why they even had all of those sticks in there when all they did was make peoples magic do weird things. She recalled seeing the two strangers holding sticks, but their sticks worked… Augh, now was not the time to be thinking of that! She needed to find Master. Her search in the ruins of Gringotts proved fruitless and the only thing of value that she found there was some old dragon bones that hadn't been completely carved up into weapons. It wasn't that the people needed weapons anymore, war hadn't been a thing for the wizarding world for over a century, it was just what their families had taught them to do just in case war ever happened again.

She whined in desperation when she remembered another spot that her Master had been frequenting. It was an old joke shop that had been handed down through her Master's family for ages, but most of the items in there had been taken and it was barren. The only reason her Master even knew that it was a joke shop was because the deed stated so. The elf made her way over the piles of metal and trash that littered the streets, then into the joke shop. "Master! Master! Lika has news!" She screeched upon seeing a mop of red hair in a hammock made from old clothing that they'd found in the abandoned robe shop.

The woman with the red hair turned to face the elf and she smiled brightly. "Only good news I hope."

"Lika found them!" The elf said, jumping around and out of breath. She could barely contain her excitement and it showed. "Lika found the savers! Master Weasley is happy?"

The woman's smile fell and she sat up, looking to her elf worriedly. "Lika, you know those are only legends. Saviors don't happen. Merlin, Gryffindor, Dumbledore, Potter, they're all legends. Stories. People only tell them because they're good entertainment and they provide hope for everyone." She said, leaning on her knees and glancing to the ground.

"Potter exists." Lika stated, a crazed happy look on her face. "He be in the castle now, with the dark man from the legend. Say the legend you say it!" She insisted.

Her Master Weasley sighed but relented and repeated the legend as she had heard it. "And it shall be peace once again when the saviors come. A light man with a kind heart and a power unmatched will appear and take pity on the world, and his companion a dark man with the knowledge of rulers past will appear soon after to lead us. As they fight to purify, they fight to restore, and balance will once again reign. The Wizarding World will prosper once more."

Lika only jumped around some more. "The light man with kind heart, that be Potter, Potter woke me up in my castle. He was kind; he didn't hit Lika once for calling him stupid. The dark man, he came later, he was in the hilly room. He made the air clean. No bad smell in the room now. He purified air! They will restore us!" She clapped her hands together eagerly.

Madame Weasley brushed it off for a moment, but when she really let herself think about it… no it couldn't be it- legends were just legends, just stories people told themselves to make them feel better. The legends said nothing about the light man being the fabled boy-who-lived though. She sighed and stood up, nodding to Lika. "Take me to them; I want to see what they do."

Lika nodded and grabbed on to her Master's hand, pulling her off to the working floo nearby to take her back to the castle. When they arrived they immediately went into hiding, the elf's magic only serving to keep them unnoticed by the two men.

Harry panted and slid down the wall in what was once the Great Hall. He looked to Snape who was still throwing air purification charms at the walls. The air in that room couldn't have been any cleaner if they had been paid to do it. "Snape! Snape stop. Is the, is the core any more responsive?"

Severus stilled for a moment and closed his eyes, feeling for the core. Yes, yes it was there, however it wasn't much stronger than before. "I think… it feels like the magic has only been serving to sustain its life. If we expect to save the core completely, we need more people casting more spells all over the castle." He opened his eyes and looked to Harry, a hint of fright noticeable in his eyes. "I think the voice spoke the truth. The castle needs constant spell work, and we need more people. As much as I am positively loathe to admit it, you carry more power than I, you should be the one to cast the spells whilst I go and locate some witches and wizards who are willing to help."

"No! I said no splitting up." Harry argued.

Severus glared to the boy and swooped in over him. "You made a deal; nothing harmful happened when we did split up for the few moments we did, and you agreed to split up after I proved I was right. I've proven my point, so now it's time for you to hold up your end of the bargain. Go and cast some spells in the center of the room while I find some witches and wizards to help cast spells on this blasted place, or I shall throttle you with my own hands!"

Harry snarled at the man but did as he was told. He didn't like being ordered around one bit. Before Snape left, Harry convinced the man to at least let him try a stitching charm that worked with the Sectumsempra spell to heal it. Luckily for them both it had the desired effect, and though Snape's arm still hurt, it was manageable. Severus made his way outside of the castle to get a good look around. When he came face to face with an overgrown forest that met the castle's doors, he realized that the Forbidden Forest had taken over the grounds. He swallowed thickly, remembering what treacherous dangers lurked in the shadows of the forest and only hoped that they wouldn't be so dangerous this time around.

As he traversed the overgrown land and the Weasley girl followed after him, he couldn't help the feeling that he was being watched. Every now and then he would turn around only to find nothing there, but he simply couldn't shake the feeling. He readied his wand and cleared his throat, stopping in the middle of a heavily green area, trees and bushes all around. The place was absolutely lush with potion ingredients that he would hopefully have a chance to take his pickings from later. "Whoever you are that is following me, show yourself or I shall have you become acquainted with a little spell that sends a stream of fire from my wand to wherever it's pointed. I can have you roasted in a second just by covering a circle around me." He waited for a moment and when nothing happened, he used the spell in a warning. "Fluignus!" He called, sending the fire straight down into the dirt then calling it back. "Do not doubt my power. SHOW YOURSELF!"

At the same time three beings came out of hiding. One from behind a tree, a young man with wild green hair, and two from the elf's magic that had been hiding them. The woman looked to the man with the green hair and raised an eyebrow. "Who are you and why are you following him?" She asked curiously, stepping to the side to get a better look at him.

"I could ask you the same thing." The man said with a huff. "And I wasn't following him, he's wandered into our territory."

The woman disregarded the dark stoic man for a moment and walked over to the green haired man. She watched as his hair changed from green to a dark purple and the man shrank back on himself. "What, you're scared? Don't be scared of me. I won't hurt you."

Snape interrupted their little meeting with a blast of fire between the two, causing them both to yell out in surprise. Lika had disappeared, gone to watch the Potter boy. "Forgive me for intruding," His voice dripped with sarcasm. "but it seems as though you didn't understand me. Identify yourselves or I will set fire to you both!"

The young man eeped and his hair turned to a bright yellow. "Livius Lupin, age 25, skill 2." He recited.

The woman rolled her eyes but obliged. "Romilda Weasley, age 17, skill 3."

Severus narrowed his eyes and lowered his wand only slightly. "Why are you so… military, and what do skill numbers have to do with anything?"

"Geeze, there's no way Lika was right, you don't know anything." Romilda muttered, sitting on a rock. Severus sent a small blast of fire to her fingers, barely making them hot but enough to drive his point. "Fine! The skill levels are 1-7, 1 being magic only in cases of dire emergency and 7 being magic that just happens all the time. He's a 2, that means that he can make magic happen in emergencies that aren't life threatening, and I'm a 3 which means I can make magic happen sometimes at will sometimes not, but both of us are so low that we can't control our magic." She crossed her arms and glared at the stick in his hand. "How about you answer some questions for us? Why does your stick work like that?"

"Because it's a wand, you twat." Snape muttered with half a glare. When the two appeared to not understand, he sighed and pointed the wand to a tree. "What are your strengths? What do you do most when you do magic?" He asked, impatiently waiting.

"Uhm, I don't understand the question." She admitted, looking down to the ground.

Severus fought with himself to keep from insulting her yet again. "When your magic 'happens', what does it do?"

"Oh it uh, well it turns things into other things." She said, scratching her head. "Last week my doorknob got turned into a hamster."

"Then a wand suited for transfiguration is what you need." He stated, looking back to the tree and racking his brain trying to remember what woods worked best with transfiguration. Fir! He muttered a spell and the tree before them shifted into a fir tree. He then stripped a bit of its bark and shaped it into a narrow and long triangle before transfiguring a rock into a bucket and sending a jet of water into it. He let the bit of wood soak in there. "Merlin's sake, what do you use to control your magic if not wands?"

The girl shrugged, however Livius soon piped up. "Wands were taken away during the third wizarding war… or was it the fourth? Either way, the rulers took everyone's wands away because everyone was a suspect and since then nobody's needed wands for anything."

Snape raised an eyebrow as he looked over the flora covering the forest's floor for a good transfiguration-type core. "And those rulers… are they still around?" He asked lowly.

"No, we've been without rulers for nearly 40 years now. Nobody was able to anymore when they all died off." Livius replied, watching with rapt fascination as the wood in the bucket curled in on itself.

"I see." Severus thought things over for a moment. No rulers, no ministry. That means no laws, meaning the three forbidden curses wouldn't be considered forbidden anymore. It also meant that so many spells and potions had been lost over time. Merlin he was going to be teaching soon, he and Potter were going to have to teach an entire bloody generation how to perform magic! How many must there be? Surely the Blacks and the Weasleys had kept multiplying. "How many witches and wizards are there in wizarding London, roughly?" He asked, returning to searching for a decent core.

Romilda laughed. "Not many. We've only 12 on Diagon Alley, another 3 or 4 I've seen living on Knockturn Alley. Hogsmeade only has about 7 people, unless the old woman's died by now, and Wizarding Paris only has about 13 or 14 people from what I've been told."

Snape stopped everything he was doing. Of all the families to have survived, and of all the old names that have been passed throughout centuries, Lupin and Weasley were among the survivors? He looked back to the boy who was focused on the wood. His hair had changed color to a light blue. That boy had to have been a descendant of Remus and Nymphadora, it was the only explanation for his metamorphmagus traits and that last name combined. He resumed his search and finally had an idea.

"Stand back, I'm going to summon a very poisonous snake and neither of you want to be bitten by it. Understood?" He glanced back to see them both stepping away from him slightly, then pointed his wand to the ground and summoned a snake with a serpensortia, using transfiguration to shift it into a boomslang. Within seconds he had the snake trapped and was milking its venom, pouring it into a poorly transfigured vial. He banished the snake and crystalized the venom, then took the wood from the bucket, placed the crystalized venom along the center line of the wood, and charmed it so that the wood would roll in on itself completely, sealing any cracks. With another flick of his own wand, he shaved off the rough edges of the bark, and gave the bigger end a curve so that it could be held easier. All in all the wand looked like a fallen branch, however he handed it to the girl. "Point that at no one until my say so, and for Merlin's sake, don't lose that! I take no fault or responsibility if it doesn't work correctly; I'm a potions master not a wand crafter."

He followed along the same plan for the Lupin boy's wand, however since his magic was mostly well rounded, he used a sprig of betony that he'd found on the forest floor which was good for charms and healing, and rowan wood for the defensive properties. He gave a sigh as he thought about what they were going to have to do. So few people existed that the girl knew of, but perhaps if he did a little digging himself he would be able to find out whether or not she told the truth. "You two, go back to the castle. Find Potter, he is in the Great Hall- er, the room… just follow the sound of his voice, he's bound to be yelling spells to feed the core. I will search for more witches and wizards." He ordered, his voice leaving no room for argument and his posture intimidating.

* * *

_**Etymology of Non-Canon Spells used in this chapter:**_

_Fluignus_ –comes from the Latin, 'flumen ignis', meaning, 'a stream of fire'. This is a curse in which flames shoot from the wand's tip like a stream of water would from a hose. A 7th year curse taught at Hogwarts.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"That's it Lika! You're doing wonderfully." Harry chimed as a loud crash came from within the room.

Livius and Romilda curiously wandered in amazed at what they saw. This man, this, this wizard was using magic as though he could control every last bit of it. The dark man could as well. Romilda couldn't help but hope that Lika was right and these were the men from the legends. "What are you doing?" She asked, her wand to her side.

Harry looked back and smiled to them. "Great! Snape's already sent back 2 of you. Okay, I need whichever one of you is stronger magically to help me separate the wood from the tables from the wood on the trees. The other one, start transfiguring the wood from the trees that I cut off into coal."

The two looked to one another and Romilda cleared her throat. "Uhm, sorry to uh… the thing is… we can't."

"We don't know magic like you know it." Livius added.

Harry stopped and turned around, frowning. "Lika, keep working. What do you two mean you don't know it like I do?"

"Well, you say words and then things you want to happen happens." Livius told him. "That kind of magic control is the stuff of legends."

"We can only spout off magic sometimes and even then it's a toss-up as to what happens." Romilda said, glancing to her feet as though she'd done something wrong.

Harry sighed and rubbed at his temples. "Accidental magic… you have wands though; you can use them, right?"

"The dark man made them for us; he said she was good for transfiliping, or whatever it's called." Livius supplied.

"Oh great, Snape making wands, that's just as absurd as me teaching Divinations. Alright, alright, I think I know what to do. Okay, guy, what's your name?"

"Livius Lupin." He replied.

Harry blinked for a moment. Lupin? Ahh, his questions could wait until later. "Alright Livius, hold out your wand like this, yes that's right, now get the movement down first. It's a swish and a flick, swish and flick, then you say Wingardium Leviosa. It will levitate the rubble. See, watch." He demonstrated for the young man.

Livius protested though. "But I've never- I mean we don't- I can't."

"You don't know until you try… just try it." Harry urged.

Livius nodded and he tried. His first attempt brought nothing and he was disheartened, but he tried again. His second attempt made the fallen rock tumble around a bit, but nothing more. Seeing the progress though was just what he needed. On his sixth attempt he cleared his mind, pointed his wand, closed his eyes, and recited the spell. The rock smashed through one of the windows, flying outside. He felt he'd done something wrong, but the elated look on Harry's face told him otherwise.

"Alright Livius, just keep practicing on that. Work on getting the rocks and stuff out of here and into the yard. Woman, what's your name?"

"Romilda Weasley, but if you call me Romilda I'm going to hit you… just call me Romi." She said with a nod.

Harry couldn't believe it, a Lupin and a Weasley! Maybe all hope wasn't lost. "Great! Great, okay, you're good for transfiguration, right?" He worked with her as he had the young man and taught her how to transfigure simple wood into charcoal.

They were building up the piles of charcoal when he decided that she had the hang of it, and he turned back to watch Livius tossing stones, trash, and other debris out of the window that he'd broken earlier. Harry smirked to himself and he began working on fixing the tables and cutting off more wood from the trees, stopping every now and then to replace a rock in the wall and shift it to the right shape to fill a gap. Lika was simply doing what she had been doing; cleaning things that the Potter man said were going to stay so that they didn't look so grimy. This day was going to be a very long day for those four.

Snape had learned 3 fundamental things from his trip through Hogsmeade. Firstly, he'd learned that all he really needed to do to get these witches and wizards to do what he wanted, being just following him around until he could take them back to the castle, was to speak in a commanding tone with the promise that he would help them learn to control their magic. Secondly, he learned that there were very few witches and wizards about. He knew that some had to be in hiding somewhere, but where he had no idea. Thirdly, he had learned that he was going to have to become a wand crafter soon and study into it if he could. He only hoped that the school's library wasn't in complete ruin so that he might have a chance to really study and learn how to make these people proper wands.

All together he'd gotten at least 17 people to follow him. He gathered them all in a group and decided that he just did not have time for a floo, the castle needed magic and it needed lots of it. Merlin knew the two he sent back weren't going to be much help, neither would this lot unless he got to work. Upon meeting them all he'd had to craft a temporary wand for them out of the three basic well-rounded things he could find. In essence they were all copies of the Lupin boy's wand. He looked around the group and called there attention. "EVERYONE LISTEN UP! I want you all to hold hands, think of it as a train. This ride is going to be fast, and it's going to be dangerous. When you make the line, go around me as though you're in a circle and have some part of you… touching my robes." He groaned internally at this. Too many people touching him, he was not looking forward to this. At least they responded well to direction and he didn't have to worry too much about that.

When they'd done as he had told them, he apparated them all back to Hogwarts. He found, much to his dismay, that the grounds no longer had active wards and they'd apparated right into the Great Hall. At least he didn't have to look far for Harry.

He was surprised, though, at what he'd seen. Harry glanced back from atop the mound in the mostly clean room. It had been a good 6 hours since they'd started working in here, and an hour ago the room was mostly perfect to what Harry had remembered; sans the house flags. The dark was drawing nearer and he knew that soon they would need to transfigure some candles.

"Lika, go and start filling the heaters with charcoal. They're downstairs, to the left of the Grand Staircase's entrance. It will help to start heating the school." He ordered before looking back to Snape and the rest. He racked his mind trying to think of what to do. "Okay! Everybody who has stuff turn from one thing to another when your magic happens, go stand by Romi." The woman raised her hand and 6 people went to stand with her. "Everyone who has things float and blow up and change colors and stuff like that, go stand next to Livius." The young man followed suit and another 5 people went towards him. "You 6, you go and stand with Livius too. Livius, Romi, I want you both to teach your groups what I've taught you. If you need to practice, you can start with the Grand Staircase, just follow the super fancy looking stairs outside of this room and take a right."

He sighed as they dispersed and went over to Snape. "This is going to be hopeless. I could clean the whole room, but for some reason I just couldn't touch this mound. I think the core's under it."

Severus frowned at this information. "But the core isn't a physical thing it-" He stopped himself when he realized that a core needed something physical to hold it, and perhaps whatever was under the mound was what the castle had chosen to hold the core. He closed his eyes and felt for the core again. It was definitely stronger than it had been before, but not by enough to count for much of anything. "It's working. It's not hopeless. We're just going to have to deal with the mound's location until we can find a more suitable host for the castle's core." He suggested.

Harry nodded but was quickly turned off guard when he heard an unfamiliar voice. "You're going to restore our world." A female voice called, dreamily and airy.

Harry turned to face her and was caught off-guard by the uncanny resemblance she had to Luna Lovegood. "Who are you? What is your name?"

She smiled and curtsied to him. "Elise Malfoy, at your service Sir." She said, looking back up to him with a smile. She tucked some of her hair behind her ear to reveal an earring that Harry had known belonged to Luna because he'd been the one to give them to her for graduation. She tilted her head as she watched him step back from her. Catching his stare, she couldn't help but smile. "You like my earrings? They've been passed down through the family for ages." She said, pulling one from her ear. She handed it to the man. "My mum said that her mum had told her a story about her grandmum. Unfortunately mum couldn't remember the story; she only knew that we were supposed to pass them down from one daughter to the next."

Harry cleared his throat and nodded to her. "Do you know much of your family tree?" He asked, hoping she could shed some light.

"No, Sir. Nobody knows their heritage anymore. I mean, we know our mums and dads, most of us, and we know the names we have, but the lines have been lost. There's been tale of tapestries that once held our genealogy, but none of us have found them."

Severus watched as the two conversed a bit more before he decided to try something. He went to the mound in the center of the room and placed his hand on it. "Can you hear me?" He asked lowly. A small 'yes' in his head was the only reply. The castle explained that it had gone from actual speaking to telepathy to save on its power. "Is the magic helping?" He asked, receiving a positive affirmation. He took his leave from the Great Hall and started down to the library, hoping that perhaps he would find at least one book that was salvageable that might help him in his quest to craft wands for these people. What he found when he arrived in the library was nothing short of an astonishing surprise.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

As Severus walked through the rotted wooden doors that separated the library from the rest of the castle, he stopped and stared at what he saw. Rows upon rows of bookshelves littered the ground, wood was smashed everywhere. It appeared as though an earthquake had happened. He looked on in dismay and started rifling through the papers that littered the ground when he noticed one key factor. The papers were all students' papers. Some were essays, some were potions homework, even a few were love letters to one another. None of the papers, however, belonged to a book.

When he took a closer look he realized that there were no books in the library, not a one! The closest thing to a book he found was a stack of papers that some Ravenclaw girl had decided to write chronicling the adventures of her time and day. He scanned over them quickly, hoping to find some kind of information as to what had happened. Boys, robes, girls, one teacher who seemed out to get everyone… Ugh, this was nothing more than a teenager's dribble.

He threw the papers to the side and roared out in frustration. That's when an idea struck him. The homework! He started rifling through the papers again, pulling out anything that explained how to do spells and potions, anything at all. He even stacked beside him papers on divinations; the one class he thought was absolutely useless.

Harry made his way to Romi's group first, checking on their progress. He found that they weren't able to cut the wood off, so he transfigured axes from some of the rubble lying about. He then went to Livius' group to check on how they were doing. Things were not going as planned at all. The only thing that Livius had really been able to teach them was the swish and flick movement. "What's wrong, why aren't they getting it?" He asked to the young man beside him.

Livius shrugged. "I told them to do the movement and say the words, but they're just not doing it right." He said before returning to levitating the rocks from the floor. "This is brilliant though." A smile crept on his face. "I've never been able to control magic before and it's just… it's so- I mean look at that!" He made one rock arch high and another take only straight movement. "Can you believe it?"

Harry patted him on the shoulder. "Yeah, I can believe it." He said before looking back to the other group. "Alright you guys, listen up. I hear some of you pronouncing the spell wrong; just remember that it's levi-OH-sa, not levi-oh-SA. Swish and flick, watch me." He went over the same routine with them, getting them all to follow along. It only took him another 15 minutes, but they all did finally grasp the concept of the spell, though one boy's wand simply wouldn't produce anything.

Harry went over to examine the wand and found much to his disappointment, that the boy had dropped his wand earlier and picked up an actual stick by mistake. Since Harry knew little to nothing about making wands he decided to take the boy with him. "You, come with me. What's your name?"

"Walter Ollivander, age 15, skill 1." The boy replied, looking down to the ground as he followed along behind the strange man.

Harry stopped and thunked his hand against his head. "Ollivander, you don't know anything about your family, do you?" He asked stopping and looking back to the boy who shook his head in response. "Alright, I suppose it's time I start letting someone in. Ollivander was the name of the most famous wand maker in all of Wizarding Europe. People from France and even Romania would come to Diagon Alley just to get fitted for a wand from Ollivander. It was something the family had been doing for centuries. I think that if you put your mind to it, you can make a wand for yourself, a good wand."

"I don't- I mean I'm only 15, Sir. I think you're putting too much faith in me." The boy said, stepping back some. He looked as though he might run at any moment.

Harry shook his head and took the boy by the shoulders. "I don't think I am. I think that you don't have enough faith in yourself. Will you at least try it for me?" He requested, receiving a nod.

Harry led them outside and he started in on transfiguring several of the trees. "Now the only thing I remember from what I was told when I was fitted for my wand is that nearly any wood can be used." He stated, looking around at all of the different kinds of trees that stood tall before them. "You have to pick the wood that you think works best with yourself. Go on, touch the trees, feel the wood, and pick one that calls to you."

The boy nodded and went through the trees, feeling each and every one. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel, but when a spark came to his fingertips as he raked his hand across the rough bark of a cedar tree he knew that was the wood for him. He recalled seeing what Snape had done to craft his first stick and looked back to Harry. "Would you please strip a piece of bark from that?" He asked as he started searching the forest floor for a core that he connected with.

Snape had a rather large pile of papers that he towed behind with a levitation charm. He would have to go through them later to sort them by class, then if all went well he could teach them to the people that were currently in the castle. "I was going to retire after this year." He muttered to himself as he walked along.

When he got to the Great Hall he sighed and placed his papers on a table. He looked around in relief that at least one room was looking as though it hadn't been touched by time, if one were to overlook the mound of dirt and stone that seemed impenetrable. Suddenly the ground shook and Hogwarts itself rattled. Snape clung to a table but found that there was no need as the shaking stopped as soon as it had begun. On the center of the mound there sat a book, the first book that Snape had seen since he'd been there. He furrowed his brow and went over to investigate, leafing through the pages. It was Ollivander's only published book; a journal turned instruction manual on choosing wands of the right woods, cores, lengths, and sometimes secondary cores and woods. "Wonderful!" He muttered, closing the book and looking back to the mound. He placed his hand on it and closed his eyes once more. "Did you do this?" He asked, receiving no response. He frowned and felt for the core. Panic set in when he realized that the core was draining fast. The castle had used the magic that they'd been pouring into it to relocate the book that was needed most. This filled Snape with both dread that the castle could die and hope that the books were all safe somewhere. He quickly scrambled to his feet and put his wand to his throat, casting a sonorus. "Everyone to the main room, IMMEDIATELY!" He bellowed before casting a quietus and waiting for them to start filing in.

Romi's group was the first to return, everyone covered from head to toe in black markings. She explained that when the castle shook it toppled the coal that they were stacking and it had marked up all of them. Luckily, though, none were hurt and it was only a mild setback, but they had managed to clear the entire ground floor of the Grand Staircase from the mess and they'd just started on the steps themselves. He sent Lika out to gather some of the coal and bring it into the Great Hall. It was already too dark and the only light they had was moonlight seeping in from the windows that had been cleaned.

Livius' group was the next to return, minus the one boy, and they reported progress as well, though unfortunately they had been breaking windows that didn't need to be broken in an effort to find somewhere to put the rubble. Severus decided that he would scold them for breaking Hogwarts property later, but then chose not to. The castle wasn't really anyone's property anymore.

When Harry and the boy Ollivander returned, Severus finally started in on what he had to say. "The castle is dying. This room holds the core and as such it needs the most magic." He mentally slapped himself when he realized that this was the reasons the feasts were always so grand, candles were always floating, and the Headmasters had never done much about non-offensive spells being cast in this room. "One person is incapable of delivering the magic that this room needs, however if we all work together we can keep this room sustained. It only takes a very minute amount of magic and energy to set a candle to float permanently until one's death; however the magic put off by such a permanent thing will undoubtedly help to sustain the castle. Potter, first tell me, why did you take the boy away?"

Harry cleared his throat and looked back to Walter. "He's an Ollivander, Sir. I was having him make his own wand."

Severus looked intrigued. He took the book over to the boy, seeing his escape from having to learn to craft wands himself. "Study this. Learn it inside and out until you could recite any passage at any time. This is your legacy; this is your family's area of expertise." He told the boy quietly before returning to his spot. He started in on teaching the group how to apply a sticking charm alongside a levitation charm so that the candles could float without needing to be concentrated on after the initial spell. He also set in to teaching them how to transfigure coal into candles.

Harry took this time to go and do what the house elf had told him to. He snuck out of the room and made his way up the treacherous Grand Staircase, at one point even having to grow several vines so that he might climb up them. He nearly stepped on a small rabbit once, but he did make it to the Headmaster's office. Casting a Lumos from his wand to lead the way as night crept on, the darkness sweeping the entire castle, Harry went searching in the Headmaster's office for the history that had been lost. He found himself, instead, face to face with a pensive that held a single silvery strand inside of it. Harry fought with himself for a few moments but ultimately he decided to dive in head first, so to speak.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The world as Harry knew it dissipated into a cloud of silvery mist, but that too soon cleared. He saw before him an older woman staring into a mirror. "I've watched the destruction of the wizarding world from within the confines of the castle walls. Many years ago a threat rose, he was said to be the descendant of Voldemort, but that could never be proven. What he did do, however, was make our entire lives hell. He was vicious, he was ruthless, but worst of all… he was the Minister of Magic. I personally don't believe that anyone could have elected him into office, it must have been a takeover, but whatever it was, he ruled supreme. He was adamant that he would live forever, that he knew the secrets to immortality that had been lost with Voldemort's downfall and the disappearance of the boy-who-lived."

She moved around her office and picked up several books, tossing them into a nearby trunk. From somewhere else, likely the eyes of the one whose memory this was, a voice came. "What happened when he took over?"

"Oh you know what happened, Grinell, you were there." She responded, sadness etched into the lines on her face.

"Humor me." Grinell replied, leaning back so the view shifted. Hooves could be seen peeking out from the bottom. It was clear that Grinell was a centaur, or at the very least a talking horse, unicorn, or Pegasus. Centaur was more likely though.

The woman nodded again. "I did agree to this after all… After the Minister took rule, the first thing he did was declare war on the muggles. He cut off all lines of communications with them, not only for us, but he somehow convinced the wizarding communities in other countries to follow in his ways. He had spread false rumors throughout the wizarding world stating that the muggles knew of us and were planning an attack. The rumors spread like wildfire and before we knew it, half-bloods and muggle-born children were being refused entrance to Hogwarts. Most of the half-bloods fled to the muggle world in desperation." She paused for a moment and looked back to the man. "The last I heard on those, they were all hunted down and slaughtered by the aurors and dementors. It was soon aft- can I please stop?" She asked as her arms shook.

"I'm terribly sorry Headmistress, but my kind has foreseen events that will require this tale. Please continue." He tried, holding out a hand to rest on her shoulder. He was most certainly a centaur.

The woman looked down but nodded her head and went on. "It was soon after then that the Minister decided that since muggles and wizarding folk had been breeding together so much that everyone was a suspect. He took the wands away from most of our kind, only allowing those who he saw as pure-blood to own them. It's been 6 years since he's done that. Our school has been steadily losing numbers for the last 50 years, but only in the last few has it really shown. This year we only had some 47 students, whereas last year we had 125. It's projected that the school won't even be running next year…"

"Is that why you're packing?" Grinell interrupted.

"No… no, I'm packing because they've taken my wand away, and without a wand, without a way to control my magic properly… I'm not fit to be Headmistress."

"Why was your wand taken away?"

The woman scoffed and shook her head. "Because the Minister found 'evidence' that my great grandmother had an affair with a half-blood, and he didn't want the mud running through my veins to taint future generations of real, pure witches and wizards." She said lowly, clenching her hands tightly. "The idiot doesn't even realize it, but if he'd ever paid attention to the legends he would have noticed that Voldemort was a half-blood, meaning he would be just as tainted as I! It wasn't the muggle-born or the half-bloods ruining this world, it was the cold heartless men and women like him who believed in a master race!" She stopped her ministrations for a moment and laughed before running to the fireplace in the room.

"Headmistress? What are you doing? We haven't finished the interview!" Grinell called standing and rushing towards her.

He caught the tail end of what was said. "-was a HALF-BLOOD! Just look into it yourself, read the texts, listen to the legends you old big ball of idiocy! If I'm 'unfit' for Hogwarts because my great grandmother once slept with a half-blood, then you're unfit for Minister because your great grandfather WAS a halfblood! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

Before the centaur's eyes the woman was pulled through the fire. He reached out to grab her, but he was too slow. Suddenly aurors came from the floo, pouring out like a marching band. One turned to the centaur and raised his wand with a snarl. "Nothing but a half-blood species. Make your peace, filth."

"Please, just give me a minute alone. If you truly will me to make my peace, give me only 60 seconds in this room alone. Seal the doors, break the floo, do what you must to keep me here, but give me those 60 seconds." The centaur begged.

The auror grimaced. "Only because we're forced to abide by last requests if they're reasonable. You have 1 minute!" He yelled before leaving the room with the others.

Grinell sprang into action, locating the pensive. He gripped the bowl's sides and tears could be seen falling into the water. "Saviors, my kind has foreseen your arrival. Please, do not give up and do not fall into the trap of the pure-blood, mud-blood hierarchy, I beg of you."

The silver mist swirled and dissipated, releasing Harry from the memory. Harry stumbled back and his breathing and heart rate increased. That centaur was killed because he was considered a half breed. He'd quite literally seen the last moments of Hogwarts' inhabitance. He stumbled back into a cabinet and knocked over a strange looking vial, spilling another silvery strand. Harry lept into action hoping to acquire the memory before it fell into the cracks but it was for naught, as the silvery strand was lost. "Accio!" He tried. It didn't work. "Accio memory!" The only thing that flew to him was the memory in the pensive. Luckily enough for him, he caught it and returned it to its place. Frantically he ran to the door and cast a sonorus on himself. "SNAPE! Headmaster's office, you have to see this!"

Severus looked up from his seat. He was taking a well-deserved rest in one of the chairs that he'd transfigured from the debris. Altogether he and the group were taking great strides. Like any witch or wizard, when they were fitted with the appropriate wand – something he had been helping the boy Ollivander to make for the others – their grasp of magic and spells would become so much grander. Thus far all 19 people sitting in the room with him had learned the levitation charm, transfiguring wood into coal and coal into candles, and the sticking charm. For their first day of school in over a century, he thought things were going fairly well.

The man sighed and made his way up through the corridors, up the vines in the grand staircase, and through to the Headmaster's office. The path there was worse than he'd ever remembered. For a brief moment he wondered how overgrown the dungeons were.

Harry had him view the memory and as soon as Snape returned from the viewing he noted a considerable change in the man. Severus didn't wish to speak to him; he only billowed off and disappeared into the depths of the castle. Harry silently made his way back to the Great Hall and was happy to see that everyone was working together. What made him the happiest, though, was the boy Ollivander's absolute will. The boy would come in, take a person, go outside, and craft them wands. He didn't know squat about lengths or how rigid or pliable they should be, so he didn't work on that at the moment. Instead he focused on making them tools that would be used until he could make them better. From watching Harry and Snape the boy had quickly picked up on the spells needed to strip bark, transfigure rocks into buckets, spit water into the buckets, and curl the wood in on itself. The wands didn't look at all attractive, but they worked, and most importantly, their woods and cores were suited to their casters.

Severus had billowed down the stairs and began roaming the castle like a ghost. He needed time to think about what he'd seen in the pensive. He needed somewhere to blow off steam. He needed countless books to- the papers! He started off to go and get the papers so that he might sort them and properly teach them later. All in all, when he thought about their first day in this new world, he couldn't help but feel it had been longer than the days he was used to. It must have been the culture shock.

Suddenly from behind he heard a familiar voice from his past. "My goodness, Professor Snape, is that you?"

* * *

_**A/N: **_6 chapters for 1 day, I know right? Culture shock! I promise all of the chapters are not going to be the telling of a few hours at a time, in fact the following chapters will likely be multiple days within a chapter. I'm not sure yet. Things will happen! I'm just trying to figure out a comfortable pace in which to set the story.


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